Strong floristic distinctiveness across Neotropical successional forests

Catarina Jakovac Jorge Arturo Meave del Castillo Frans Bongers Susan Letcher JUAN MANUEL DUPUY RADA Daniel Piotto Danaë Rozendaal Marielos Peña-Claros Dylan Craven Braulio Santos Alexandre Siminski Alfredo Fantini Alice Cristina Rodrigues Alma Hernandez-Jaramillo Álvaro Idárraga-Piedrahita André Junqueira Angelica Almeyda Zambrano Bernardus de Jong Bruno X. Pinho Bryan Finegan Carolina Castellanos Castro Daisy Christiane Zambiazi Daisy Dent Daniel Hernán Garcia-Villalobos Deborah Kennard Diego Delgado Eben Broadbent Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi Eduardo A. Pérez-García Edwin Lebrija-Trejos Erika Berenguer Erika Marin-Spiotta Esteban Alvarez_Davila EVERARDO VALADARES DE SÁ SAMPAIO Felipe Melo Fernando Elias Filipe França Florian Oberleitner Francisco Mora Ardila G. Bruce Williamson Gabriel Colletta George Cabral Geraldine Derroire Geraldo Fernandes Hans van der Wal Heitor Mancini Teixeira Henricus F.M. Vester Hernando Garcia Ima Vieira Jaider Jiménez-Montoya Jarcilene Almeida Cortez Jefferson Hall Jerome Chave Jess Zimmerman Jhon Edison Nieto Vargas Joice Ferreira JORGE ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ VELAZQUEZ Jorge Ruiz Jos Barlow Jose Aguilar Cano JOSE LUIS HERNANDEZ STEFANONI Julien Engel Justin Becknell Kátia Janaina Zanini Madelon Lohbeck Marcelo Tabarelli Marco Antonio Romero Romero Maria Uriarte Maria das Dores Magalhães Veloso Mário do Espírito Santo Masha van der Sande Michiel van Breugel Miguel Martínez-Ramos Naomi Schwartz Natalia Norden Nathalia Pérez-Cárdenas Noel Antonio González_Valdivia PASCAL PETRONELLI Patricia Balvanera Paulo Massoca Pedro Brancalion Pedro Manuel Villa Peter Hietz Rebecca Ostertag René López Camacho Ricardo Cesar Rita Mesquita Robin Chazdon Rodrigo Muñoz Saara DeWalt Sandra Müller Sandra M Duran Sebastião Martins Susana Ochoa-Gaona Susana Rodriguez-Buritica T. Mitchell Aide Tony Vizcarra Bentos Vanessa de Souza Moreno Laura Vanessa Granda William Thomas Whendee Silver YULE NUNES Lourens Poorter (2022)

Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristic groups, with a between-group dissimilarity of 0.97. Floristic groups were associated with location, bioregions, soil pH, temperature seasonality, and water availability. Hence, there is large continental-scale variation in the species composition of early successional forests, which is mainly associated with biogeographic and environmental factors but not with human disturbance indicators. This floristic distinctiveness is partially driven by regionally restricted species belonging to widespread genera. Early secondary forests contribute therefore to restoring and conserving the distinctiveness of bioregions across the Neotropical realm, and forest restoration initiatives should use local species to assure that these distinct floras are maintained. Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved.

Artículo

CONSERVATION ECOSYSTEMS FORESTRY BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA VEGETAL (BOTÁNICA) ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL